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Security and defence

The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is an integral part of EU foreign policy. Through its military operations and civilian missions, the EU has contributed to regional and global stability. Since it's inception, the CSDP has responded to a shifting regional security context. It has played a vital role in crisis management in the EU's near and wider neighbourhood but it is also an essential part of the EU's broader approach to the protection of Europe and capacity building.

Although the Lisbon Treaty consolidated the EU's crisis management apparatus, the EU Global Strategy has set a new level of ambition for EU defence. In addition to the CSDP playing an operational role in the EU's integrated approach to crises, the EU Global Strategy has stressed the need for the EU to become a more capable and effective defence actor. Initiatives such as the European Defence Fund, the coordinated annual defence review (CARD) and more coherent financing for EU operations and capacity building efforts are all aimed at supporting the EU's strategic autonomy and the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. The EUISS continues to support the development of CSDP through outreach activities and expert publications.

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    01November 1998
    Cooperative security in the Baltic Sea region
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    The Baltic Sea area has for centuries been a hub of international activity and exchange, embodied in particular by the Hanseatic League, with resulting conditions of intense cooperation and shared prosperity. It is therefore not surprising that, contrary to widespread fears, the situation in the region did not break loose after the bitter divisions imposed by the Cold War: in more ways than one, the region constitutes another 'mediterranean' area, with a potential for political solidarity and common security.

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    01April 1998
    Humanitarian action in a new security environment
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    There has been an unprecedented growth of humanitarian action since the end of the Cold War. Its expansion has coincided with the proliferation of humanitarian organisa­tions. Thus, both the quantitative and the qualitative roles of the humanitarian agencies have significantly changed.

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    01April 1998
    From decoupling to recoupling. A new security relationship between Russia and Western Europe?
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    A European security policy is in the making. It received a decisive impulse in 1997, in particular with the Amsterdam Treaty. It will have to take into account a much transformed international scene in which the traditional balance of power and coexistence mechanisms are pushed aside by a renewed attempt at cooperative security that is not bound by rigidly pre-established formulas.

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    01January 1998
    Safeguarding European competitiveness: Strategies for the future of European arms production and procurement
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    This analysis presents a set of recommendations aimed at improving the competitiveness of the European defence industry, while maintaining a stable and equitable transatlantic relationship in the field of defence. The European armaments industry is faced with declining domestic and international demand, spiraling development and production costs and intense international competition, particularly from the American industry.

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    01December 1997
    Conflict prevention in the Balkans: case studies of Kosovo and the FYR of Macedonia
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    Concerned as they are by the many crises occurring on their very doorstep, the European public, politicians and analysts seem hardly to recognize other conflicts in Europe that have not happened and need not happen. Crisis prevention and peace-building have been sidelined by conflict management and peacekeeping.

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    01October 1997
    L'Europe et la dissuasion nucléaire
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    Pendant la Guerre froide, le facteur nucléaire a structuré et sous-tendu les relations internationales. Il était à la base des stratégies militaires du monde occidental, déterminant toutes les fonctions de défense.

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    01October 1997
    Sweden's Security Policy: Engagement - the Middle Way
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    Since 1814, Sweden's security policy has been anchored to varying degrees of neutrality. Throughout this timeperiod, its interpretation has been flexible and trademarked by an ability to adjust to different external conditions; effectively enabling the country to combine participation in international affairs with an adherence to non-alignment.

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    01October 1997
    The Bosnian war and the new world order
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    The war in Bosnia has witnessed a broad swing in the moods of the "international community" and of European nations particularly. In the wake of the end of the Cold War and of the victory in the Gulf War, expectations run high at the outbreak that collective security would have been able to deal with regional disturbances.

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    01July 1997
    European Public Opinion and Security Policy
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    With the end of the Cold War, security has acquired very different components. In Europe, it has broadened to include conflict prevention and crisis management, in an attempt to substitute persuasion for enforcement. It has essentially become a political rather than a military concept whose features are foresight, transparency and accountability, and which combines political and economic as well as military measures.

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    01June 1997
    Towards a European Weapons Procurement Process
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    Changes in the post-Cold War strategic landscape have, among other things, affected WEU countries' Defence Industrial and Technological Base (DITB). The further evolution of WEU, with respect to the recently defined EU reform and that impending in NATO, heightens the importance of solving the problems hampering European armaments cooperation, which directly affects WEU's operational capabilities.

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